I've never been much of a groupie, always preferred soloing. What class is advisable to play?
I prefer melee, I've never really enjoyed playing caster classes. From the posts I've read, it seems that grouping is a necessity at higher lvls. Perhaps you can suggest a class that does well in solo, but can group some.
I thought about playing a pally, but since I wasn't able to find a paladin newbie guide, I decided against winging it.
Anyway, hope to see all of you in Toril soon.

troll warrior is a great starter class because it is also wanted at high levels, and where paladins need to do a quest to get a class defining sword, then troll warriors can just fight with what they find.

There is the issue with getting out of the hometown, but my advice is you learn the route before you begin xping, and die the 20 times nessesary before you begin to xp in scardale or whatnot.

Necro, Shaman, Elementalist are all pet *creating* classes. Shaman pets are acquired at lvl 21through a fairly easy quest, elemenmtalists get their *big* pets at lvl 21, and necros get their pets after a kill when they raise them from the dead. Shaman can only get their pet 3 times per mud week, necros only if they can find a decent corpse, and elemenmtalists if not being attacked (but they are unlimited one at a time).

At higher levels, necro pets out-damage shaman and mentalist, but have their disadvantages that they cannot blind, stone, or heal (the pets can heal themselves).

Shaman are a great class to learn on, they get the healing, the curing, the minor damage, and at lvl 27 the stoneskin and vit!

Elementalists are the most fun (from what I have seen) as they can do *all that and a bag of chips* I have soloed stuff with my mentalist that I have seen a group of people fail on.

Where necro and elementalist are mages, they are physically weak and are harder to start from a *brand new* mudder perspective. Lower level mobs will kick your butt, and your spells are weak as all anything at the start.

Shaman are priest hybrids and get armor spells and cure light very early and are far easier to start. They also have the BONUS (:P) of word of recall for those fun times of exploring.

As a whole, if you can find a PC tank til lvl 21, elementalists are the best for soloing (in my opinion). Keep in mind tho, that the tank classes are easiet to start because they can actually kill things bigger than they can at a lower level. Mages get their power later in life, and are WAY more fun than the hack n slashers.